World Run II / Reports

The map shows the position of which the pictures for the day are taken (if any). The start and finish markers are placed at the first and last valid registered position. This is not nessesary the actual start and finish position, if GSM or GPS signals was not available.

Goto: 2010-02-16 2010-02-18 Africa

2010-02-17:

23
Distance today: 38.0 km (Accumulated: 20741.0 km)
Elapsed time: 03:38:56
Country: Africa

Start 09:25am. at brown exitsign "Voortrekkerterrein" at cross of Old Cape Rd. & Vanstadens Gorge, on Old Cape Rd./Rd. 102. 20c, o.c. and l. wind. Finish 14:45pm. At cross of Old Cape Rd. & Da Gama Road at Jeffreys Bay, on Old Cape Rd./Rd. 102. 24c, half o.c. and same.

Looking forward to a rest :-)

When you follow the daily stages of the run you probably have noticed that its been a bit of a tough run (and survival ! ;-) through the 7000 to 8000km of the remote parts of East Africa, after a fairly easy run through Europe and the Middle East.

When meticoulously going over the details w. my main sponsor Ecco, they have been very generous to allow me a substantial rest after running into Cape Town ! And a chance to catch up w. family & friends - most I havent seen in 20months since the start above the Polar Circle in Norway; I look Much forward to meeting again :-)

The specific details is still to be worked out, but I am certain its a wise decition to get the tropical deseases out of the body & fully recover physically fromthe 21 000km at the tip of Africa before taking on South America:

- It is good, depending that I maneage to run the last 800km to Cape Town, to becomethe first person to complete a run straight across the African continent (as I became the first to run across Siberia in wr1, though the great russian runners Basof & Kaleznikow came close decades earlier !). But its nice also to make sure to survive to tell or write the story.. And its my feeling that the body needs to be heard in its request for a rest after Cape Town :-)

In that aspect I have been very lucky to have voulenteer support-car crews and accomodations nearly every single day of the run here in South Africa; else I might have had a slim chance of reaching Cape Town. By now, after running well over 1000km in S. A. since the border to Swaziland up North, Im beginning to get a more solid impression of the mentality here. And besides people beeing very concearned w. the high rate of violent crime (in my oppinion perhaps too worried, w. due respect !!, as I have met only kind people here incl.the 'no-go' zones like the Transkei) - but the dominant quality here is the amazing help/support; few areas in running across 5 continents in wr 1 & wr 2 compares :-)

Today I had the joy of having Darrell crewing another stint before handing the support job over to Paul from Jeffreys Bay. Darrell has put together the overall support-plan for S. Africa and has 20y. of race organizing and a pb. of 2:25h. on marathon. Paul ran his first marthon 3 weeks agoand has all the Joy of long distance running ahead of him.. Fantastic how the support here spands all runners; makes each new meeting fascinating despite my tiredness :-))

NB: I expect to catch up w. the webreports from Pt. Alfred and 5d. forward. I have lately been too fatigued to do the 'intellectual work' of writing them. And I guess, if you dont have energy left after the daily run to write a few lines - then you are a bit tired ;-)